Thursday, April 24, 2014

CLIVEN BUNDY: AN EXAMPLE OF HOW TO GO FROM FOLK HERO TO RACIST IN 60 SECONDS

I have defended Cliven Bundy somewhat on this site, not so much for his strange views of not recognizing the Federal Government and the like, but for standing up to government thugs who think it is perfectly acceptable to show up with an overwhelming show of force, set up "free amendment zones" which is just a new way of killing our first amendment, kill cattle just cause, and beat protestors which video shows were not causing the trouble the New Gestapo claimed.

However, Bundy and his followers have made some very questionable comments on TV, the worst coming from a former Arizona Sheriff, Richard Mack, who had showed up to protest/protect the Bundy Ranch, when he said ON CAMERA that they planned on using women as human shields so if the Feds started to fire, they'd have to kill them first. While technically not a bad plan to get sympathy for your cause if video shows up of armed thugs mowing down women, never say something like that on tape, moron. I wouldn't recommend using woman as shields either by the way, but as history shows, propaganda is mighty effective.

But Cliven Bundy has done what I long expected him to do: get enough rope to hang himself with. Bundy is no intellectual beacon and today proved that with one of the dumbest things I have heard this year; a statement so racist, so vile, that Republicans of all sorts have fled from him as if he were radioactive, which he now is. With a few paragraphs of insanity, told to a reporter from the NYT, that much like Richard Mack, he has now painted the entire militia movement as neo-KKK just missing the robes and pointy hats. Here is what he said in it's entirety from the Washington Post so I cannot be accused of taking this out of context:

"I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” he said. Mr. Bundy recalled driving past a public-housing project in North Las Vegas, “and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids — and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch — they didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for their kids to do. They didn’t have nothing for their young girls to do.

“And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he asked. “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”

Wow. WTF was that? That only way that statement could be more racist is if it did it in blackface while having a re-enactment of Twelve Years A Slave being performed behind him as a comedy. Now you would think that Captain Dumbass might realize he stepped in it, but no, this guy kept plugging on. Here is what he went on to say on various radio shows:

I'm not racist" and that the New York Times should retract their story. "I would appreciate that. I think they should do that," Bundy said. "They're making it a racist-type thing."

On Peter Schiff's talk radio show, however, he stood by his remarks. "Are they happier now under this government subsidy system than they were when they were slaves, and they was able to have their family structure together, and the chickens and garden, and the people had something to do? And so, in my mind I’m wondering, are they better off being slaves, in that sense, or better off being slaves to the United States government, in the sense of the subsidies. I’m wondering. That’s what. And the statement was right. I am wondering.”

The answer to that is a resounding NO! Black people were not better off during slavery, a horrific time in American history that should be seen as a resounding failure of common sense and human decency, not a nostalgic dip into the water of days past. Rand Paul, Paul Ryan and dozens of others who have supported him have distanced themselves from him so far and so fast, he might as well be on Mars. Here's a smattering of what some politicians and pundits have said:

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul released a statement Thursday saying, Bundy's "remarks on race are offensive and I wholeheartedly disagree with him.Van Susteren has also distanced herself from Bundy. A headline on her Web site linking to the New York Times story reads, "Let Me Make This Plain: I Condemn What Cliven Bundy Said About African Americans."Nevada Sen. Dean Heller's spokesperson said Thursday, “Senator Heller completely disagrees with Mr. Bundy’s appalling and racist statements, and condemns them in the most strenuous way.” While on a local television show with his fellow Nevada senator Harry Reid, Heller said, “What Sen. Reid may call domestic terrorists, I call patriots. “We have a very different view on this.”Nevada Assemblywoman Michele Fiore, an outspoken supporter of Bundy, also released a statement Thursday. "I strongly disagree with Cliven Bundy’s comments about slavery," she said. "Mr. Bundy has said things I don’t agree with; however, we cannot let this divert our attention from the true issue of the atrocities BLM committed by harming our public land and the animals living on it."Arizona state Sen. Kelli Ward — who spoke at a Bundy rally in Nevada this month — wrote in an e-mail to The Washington Post: "Apparently he has some thoughts that aren't shared by many Americans. He is free to think and speak as he chooses (even if it may offend) and we are free to listen (or not) and form our own opinions. I am thankful for our amazing Constitution and the 1st Amendment right to freedom of speech — if I don't agree, I don't seek to silence or shame the speaker or to paint his associates with the broad brush of collective condemnation." Ward says she also disagrees with Bundy's statements to the Times.

That is a lot of people telling you to shut the hell up. His fifteen minutes are up, as I doubt even Sean Hannity will have this guy on. Cliven Bundy is TOXIC to anyone who doesn't want to branded a racist, which is the kind of thing that can end a career in today's hypersensitive world. A good example would be a joke one my favorite comedians, Joan Rivers, made about the Cleveland Kidnapping case when she said that living with her daughter was cramped and "that those girls in the basement in Cleveland had more space."Of course people took offense, especially the three girls rescued, but come on, that's funny. Rivers has refused to back down which she shouldn't. There's a big difference between this and the nonsense coming from Cliven Bundy.

This is why racism is still alive and well in this country when old farts like Bundy think black people were happier as slaves, when they didn't "suck off the Welfare teat," as Bundy would put it. I am praying to God that this show up on The Daily Show tonight and I also expect to hear about it in the much anticipated new show this Sunday from John Oliver. Cliven Bundy lived up to his last name which has been synonymous with loser since the early 90's, and will certainly appear on my douchebag list later this week.

A quick side note is that the FCC killed net neutrality and with it, the future of the Internet and this country. Call your senators and representatives to get them to pass legislation to stop this power grab from greedy multinationals. This ruling could raise rates, create a two tiered internet system, kill sites like this, kill small businesses and end the economy. Aren't our government organizations grand now that they are completely controlled by the corporations?